“That’s sick,” I said, swallowing the surge of fear that choked at the back of my throat. Eli had claimed he was just ending our lesson early on Capri, conveniently taking me out of the path of a charging horde of demons. I’d wanted to believe him. But even though it hadn’t technically been a lie, the line he’d walked was pretty thin—thin enough some would say he crossed it. I pushed the thought from my mind, worried it would show on my face and Tommy would start asking more questions.
“You’re damn skippy, it’s sick. They aren’t built like us, Emma,” he said. “Their brains fire differently. That’s why mixing between us is nothing but trouble.”
“What do you mean, he wasn’t allowed to help you? Says who?”
“Everyone says.” Tommy sighed. “We’re in the middle of a cease-fire in Heaven. The angels pretend all the Fallen are locked in the abyss and the Fallen pretend they don’t care that their brothers cut the metaphysical bonds between them. The Fallen are completely off the angels’ radar, shunned. Unless they knew each other before their fall, an angel and a Fallen could stand side by side and not know it.”
“But the angels know their brothers are still falling,” I said. “I mean, hello, we’re the proof.”
“Knowing it and admitting it are two different things,” Tommy said. “If they admit the Fallen are still wandering around knocking up human women, then they’ll have to fight. The war would start all over again, and this time they’d have to do it without being able to use their bonds to find them. Their own shortsightedness and pride screwed them.”
“But we can sense the Fallen,” I said.
“Exactly. When the angels realized nephilim had the ability and the willingness to go after the Fallen, they figured we were the answer to their problem.” Tommy uncrossed his leg and leaned forward. “If they could clue us in to our natural abilities, arm us with a sword and call it a gift, we would go after the Fallen on our own, and they could claim innocence.”
“But if the angels actually help us by interfering in a way they can’t explain as harmless interaction,” I said, thinking ahead, “then the cease-fire is broken, and the Fallen will fight back with everything they have. Pretty thin line.”
“Anorexic.” He straightened. “Which is why we have to be careful. One slip and everything could change. Angels can be just as emotional and stupid as humans. Eli’s been working behind the scenes since the beginning. That’s a long time to sit by and watch your enemy enjoying the one thing you want just as much.”
“Right,” I said, but my thoughts were drifting to memories of Eli talking to the Fallen in the garden, then blinking me out before the demons could reach me. He’d recognized the blond guy as the Fallen who’d killed Jeannette. He must have known him before his fall. Had they been friends?
It didn’t matter—Eli had interfered. There was no way to argue around it. Crap. What if Tommy was right, and I really was the cause of a coming war?
“What?” Tommy asked.
My eyes turned to his, snapping me out of my private thoughts. “What, what?” I don’t know what expression I’d had on my face, but he must’ve read something there.
“You look like you just tripped a nun.”
I pushed my shoulder off the doorframe. “Nothing. I was just…thinking.”
“Emma, if something happened with Eli, you need to tell me,” he said. “If we’re caught off guard, we’re dead.”
I scoffed. “Eli would never hurt either of us.”
“Not now, but if he fell…” Tommy shrugged. “I don’t know, Em, something happens to them. Maybe it’s being shunned by their brothers or being ignored by God. Maybe it’s just plain greed and gluttony. Whatever it is, they change. Nothing matters more to them than what they want, and they’ll go through anyone to get it.”
“Not Eli,” I said.
“You don’t know, Emma Jane,” he countered. “It might not take much. Maybe even a kiss, and the Eli we know could be gone.”
“A kiss? And the award for melodrama goes to…”
Tommy stood, rolled a shoulder. “All I’m saying is we might not realize he’s about to fall until it’s too late. You can’t always depend on him to resist. You can’t count on him being strong enough to turn away from the brink.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Don’t give him a reason to fall,” Tommy said.
“You think I am?”
“I think he’s already doing things I’ve never seen him do before,” Tommy said. “He’s already taking risks because of you, and for all we know, it might not take more than that for him to slip.”
There was nothing I could do about it. My gender wasn’t going to change. And the way Eli made me feel, well, that I could work harder to ignore. But for now, after the damage I may have already done, I couldn’t think about it anymore.
“If you were so worried, maybe you shouldn’t have taken off after that demon when Eli told you to,” I said, shifting the blame. I was half-human, after all. Sue me. “Did you at least catch him?”
Tommy shook his head. “No. He’s an old one, faster. Made it back to the conference hotel before I could catch up.”
“So whoever sent him now knows about me.” Perfect. I always wanted to be a target when I grew up.
“Don’t worry about it. My televangelist Fallen angel dad is gonna be in Pittsburgh in about two weeks for the same kind of religious conference they had in New York. I met a guy. He’s got a way to get me close. If everything works out, the Fallen who sent that demon will be too worried about his own head to be coming after yours.”
“A guy, huh? I hope you’re right.”
The bathroom was the door next to my bedroom, and I headed for it, wanting this entire conversation over with two minutes ago. “I have to take a shower before my client gets here.”
Tommy stepped into my path, stopping me. “If Eli falls, it won’t mean he loves you.”
I angled back. We were standing too close now. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He shifted, giving us both a little more of a comfort zone. “When they fall, it’s not like the movies. They don’t fall to be with their true love or anything. It’s physical. It’s sex—pure and simple. It’s what they’ve been denied, and once they taste it, that’s what they crave. That’s all they crave. They’ll take it anywhere they can get it, and angels, even fallen ones, can get it…anywhere.”
Goose bumps chilled up the back of my neck. I pulled a breath through my nose and fought to keep my nauseous reaction to myself. “Fascinating, Tommy. Now if you don’t mind, I’ve got to make a living so I can keep us both in Doritos.”
I pushed past him and into the bathroom. Just as the door closed, Tommy said, “He doesn’t care about you that way, Emma. I love him too, but he’s not one of us. He’s not nephilim. Don’t forget that.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Where you goin’?” Tommy asked, and I jumped, jerking the steering wheel of my Jeep so hard, I nearly drove into a tree.
“Holy—crap.” I swerved the car back onto the road and slugged Tommy, who’d suddenly appeared in the passenger seat.
“Ouch. Hey.”
“Don’t ever friggin’ do that again. Got me?”
“No doubt. Sheesh,” he said, rubbing the sore spot on his bicep.
Then it dawned on me. He’d traveled fast enough to land in a moving car. Cool. It’d been nearly two weeks since my trip around the world with Eli. Two weeks of squeezing in combat practice between clients, two weeks of testing out my strength, my speed, my enhanced psychic gifts. I’d only been attacked once since the last demon got away, but I’d managed to slice off her head in the handicap bathroom stall in Walmart.
I still felt like I didn’t know what was going on half the time and could never really shake the fear of being ambushed by some berserk demon. Luckily, I faked normal better than most people. I’d had years of practice.
“What, are you stalking me or something?”
“
I like to think of it as keeping an eye out for you,” he said.
“Right. They’ve got laws against it.”
He shifted to a comfortable position in his seat, slouching. “So, where are you going?”
“To the library,” I said. “I thought they might have copies of the yearbooks during the years my mom taught high school English in McKeesport. She’s always been all about her job and her family. If a horny angel wanted to get close to her, he’d have to come at her through one or the other. I’m betting job.”
I glanced back and forth between Tommy and the road. He nodded. “Makes sense. So, you figure you’ll look over the yearbooks and see if you notice any wings or halos?”
I scoffed. “No.” Smartass. “But I thought there might be some candid shots of my mom. If she was having an affair at school, someone might have caught a photo of them together. Plus, I can check male teachers who were only at the school the year I was conceived, then gone the next year.”
“Actually, that’s not a totally idiotic idea,” he said.
“Gee…thanks. Careful, that kind of gushing praise will just go to my head.”
“I know.” He stretched his arm out to drape it over the back of my seat and tried to lounge his legs a little more. A Jeep Wrangler isn’t made for lounging. “Where’s your sword?”
I tipped my head and caught his following glance to the hilt laying on the backseat.
“You’re taking it in with you, right?”
“Nah. Doesn’t really go with the outfit. Yes, I’m taking it in, nag.”
“That’s Mr. Nag to you,” he said, and shifted his gaze out the window.
The conversation quieted. Several seconds ticked by without a word, but when we were almost to the library, I said, “Don’t you, um, have someplace to be?”
He shook his head. “Not until tonight. Besides, I’ve been doing this gig for a while now. Maybe I’ll recognize someone or notice something you don’t.”
That wasn’t it. My gaze flicked to him again as he shifted once more in his seat. His leg bounced on his toe, his hand tapping a counter-rhythm on his knee. “Why are you so wired?”
He looked at me, and all his nervous motion suddenly stopped. “Nothing. Why?”
“For one thing, you’re tagging along with me to a library,” I said.
“So?”
“You’re a jock, Tommy. I mean, you might be a nephilim warrior now, but you’ll always have the mindset of a jock. Jocks are allergic to libraries.”
“That’s so prejudiced.” His face pinched in offense, mouth agape. He was faking it. “Don’t label me. I’m a whole person, not just the beautifully toned athlete you see on the outside.”
I rolled my eyes. “Right. Okay, Mr. Toned Athlete, what’s got you so keyed up you can’t sit still?”
He followed my quick look at his knee—bouncing again. It stopped, and he swung his gaze back to me. His smile bloomed across his handsome face, dimpling his cheeks and twinkling in his eyes. I almost sighed. So cute.
“I’m done,” he said. “I mean, I will be by this time tomorrow.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“That guy I told you about,” he said. “My connection—he came through. Got me tickets to the televangelist’s seminar. Second row, left side. Close enough I’ll be swimming in demons.”
“Won’t the Fallen and his demon minions sense you?”
“They won’t do anything in a crowd like that,” he said. “The crowd’s actually a bonus, like a no-fire zone for both sides. I can get close enough to sense him, to know for sure he’s a Fallen. While I’m at it, I can scout out how many demons he’s called up as bodyguards. It’s perfect.”
“Does Eli know the plan?”
“Yep,” he said, his knee resuming its anxious bounce. “I can’t wait. You know the first thing I’m going to do when I get my life back?” he said. “I’m taking my whole family out to dinner. Mom, Dad, my pain-in-the-butt sisters, and my nephew. Hell, maybe I’ll even include that guy Jill married. I don’t care, as long as we’re all together, out in public, and I don’t have to worry about demon attacks or Fallen angels anymore.”
“Not going to be cheap. Can you afford it?” He’d mentioned coming to and from work, but never elaborated on the details. Like what he did and where.
“Yeah,” he said, indignant.
“Cool. Where did you say you work?” I asked, oh-so-slyly.
“I didn’t,” he said. “But I work at a movie theater.”
“Yeah? Which one?”
His gaze drifted out his window. “Uh, the one over on Route Fifty-One.”
“There’s a movie theater on Route Fifty-One?” My brain mapped the busy road. “Where?”
He swung his gaze back to me with a huff. “It’s an adult theater, okay? It’s open late, we don’t get a lot of heavy customer flow, and they’re flexible with my hours.”
“You work at an adult movie theater? You mean, like porn?”
“Not porn,” he said, his shoulders stiffening. “They’re artistic films. Mature, relationship movies. Graphic romances.”
“Riiigght.” Laughter bubbled through my chest. “So what’s your job, selling tickets? Working the concession stand? Handing out moist towelettes?”
“I run the projector. Sometimes I have to clean the theater between showings.” He grumbled his answer, knotting his arms across his chest as he stared out the window.
“Clean up? Ewww,” I said, fighting hard not to let my amusement show too much. “Opens a world of possibilities behind the reasons for the sticky floors, huh?”
“You don’t want to know. Trust me,” he said, then shrugged. “It’s an easy job. I’m away from people, so nobody’s at risk. And it’s only temporary. After tonight, I’m going back to my old life.”
He shifted to face me again, his pent-up excitement returning. “I’ve been practicing my pitch all these years. Keeping my arm strong. There’s nobody in the majors that can touch my fastball now. A hundred and eighty miles per hour. I clocked it.”
“The speed’s because of your nephilim strength, isn’t it?” I asked.
“Well, yeah.” He tsked, like the question was stupid. “No human can throw that fast.”
“What if your abilities go away once you kill the televangelist? I mean, provided he’s the Fallen who fathered you.”
Tommy shrugged.
Not so stupid now, huh?
“So, I’ll pitch normal speed. I was all-state my junior year, Emma. I would’ve gone pro if”—he glanced at the illorum mark on his inner wrist—“this hadn’t happened. And like I said, I’ve been practicing. I’m as good as I ever was. Better.”
There was a note of desperate worry in his voice, like I was stomping doubt all over his happy hope garden. Truth or not, after eight years battling demons and fallen angels, he deserved whatever hope he could manage.
“You’re right,” I said. “After all, you’ve got that awesome athletic bod going for you.”
He snorted. “That’s right.”
Our eyes met, and the mood shifted. My smile tempered, and my tone turned somber. “I mean it, Tommy. With everything you gave up to do this, you deserve a good life, the life you dreamed of.”
He reached over and tucked my hair behind my ear. “Thanks, Em. I think we both do.”
I nodded, keeping my gaze steady on the road. I wasn’t sure I agreed with him on the second part. I’d had a pretty good life up to this point. Still did, as far as I could tell. He’d lost everything at eighteen. I couldn’t imagine.
“I want it all, ” he said. “A fantastic career, a ton of fans screaming my name. I want to collect friends like a magnet in a pile of paper clips and never let them go. I want the other stuff too, stuff I never thought I’d want eight years ago. To start a family. Kids. I want a wife, someone I can trust, who understands me.”
His hand slipped from my shoulder to the back of my neck, his thumb caressing over the fine hairs. A warm shiver quivered thro
ugh me, stirring sensations low in my body. It wasn’t that I wanted to be his “someone,” but the way he touched me, the soft sexy tone of his voice, awakened all my body’s girl parts.
I looked sideways at him, my smile suddenly out of control as I turned in at the library parking lot and straight into an open spot. “So you’ll get me season tickets, right? Wherever you land a pro contract?”
He laughed and caressed his thumb against the back of my neck. “You bet. Box seats. You’d look good up there with all the players’ wives. ”
I laughed with him, even as a flutter tickled through my belly. Tommy and I had grown close fast and talking like this, like we could have a future together one day, made me feel normal for the first time in a long time. “I’d like that,” I said.
He shifted in his seat, moving closer, his gaze focusing on my lips for an instant before flicking to my eyes. “I’m glad you’re with me, Emma. I wish I’d known back in high school how amazing you are, but I’m glad I got a second chance to find out.”
My breath caught and I sat stone still as he leaned closer and pressed his lips to mine. Heat swirled inside me, pulsing through my veins with the racing beat of my heart. His tongue traced along my lips and I opened them to him, my brain melting as he deepened the kiss.
The taste of his last cinnamon Fireball tingled on my tongue, and the masculine smell of his cologne scented my every shaky breath. Muscles flexed and slicked between my thighs and for a few wonderful seconds, I forgot about the world.
And then he broke the kiss, leaning back just enough to see my eyes. “You’re perfect for me.”
My face warmed and my smile stretched wide. “You say that now; wait until you taste my cooking.”
Tommy laughed and sat back in his seat. “I’ll cook if you do the dishes.”
“Deal.”
He gave me a nod, his smile big and happy. “Okay. But first we have some research to do.” He hiked a thumb toward the backseat where my sword handle and sheath rested. “Grab that.”
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